[full article] - PDF (language - ukrainian)
UDC 172.4
Denis Kiryukhin
Skovoroda's Institute of Philosophy, The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
RECIPROCITY AND THE PROBLEM OF RECONCILIATION
This article demonstrates that the option of reciprocity and reconciliation is preserved even in the situation that might be called a manifestation of radical evil. The resolution of the acute crisis of human and intercultural relations manifested in tragic events, such as the Holocaust or the genocides, lies in reciprocity through forgiveness, on the one side, and in reciprocity through justice (ethical equality of the conflicting parties), on the other side. Obviously, this is an extremely complicated and hardly realizable task in the decades to come. However, we have no alternative to solving this problem. Reciprocity, in the broadest sense of the word, as our obligation towards the other to return to them the advantages they give to us, is one of the basic prerequisites of the very possibility of social cooperation. The discussion of ways of reconciliation — especially in the legal aspect — is more typical for Western European culture based on the tradition of Christianity. Nevertheless, this does not mean that there are no possibilities for reconciliation in Islam, Confucianism, or in any other cultural or religious traditions. Therefore, it is extremely important in the globalizing world firstly to study and to update knowledge on the various "reconciliation cultures" represented in various traditions and ethoses, and secondly to look for opportunities for reconciliation understood as peaceful coexistence and accommodation of superficially warring positions and cultural and religious concepts.
Keywords: reciprocity, reconciliation, forgiveness, Kant, Rawls.
References:
1. Buchanan A. "Critique of Justice as Reciprocity". In Contemporary Political Theory. A Reader, edited by C. Farrelly, 99-107. London: SAGE Publication, 2004.
2. Forst R. The Right to Justification. Elements of a Constructivist Theory of Justice. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.
3. Looney A. Vladimir Jankélévitch. The Time of Forgiveness. New York: Fordham University Press, 2015.
4. Mobekk E. "Transitional Justice in Post-Conflict Societies – Approaches to Reconciliation". In After Intervention: Public Security Management in Post-Conflict Societies - From Intervention to Sustainable Local Ownership, edited by A. Ebnother and P. Fluri, 261-293. Geneva: Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, 2005.
5. Murphy C. Moral Theory of Political Reconciliation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
6. Roermund B. Van. "Rubbing Off and Rubbing On: The Grammar of Reconciliation". In Lethe"s Law: Justice, Law and Ethics in Reconciliation, edited by E.Chirtodoulidis and S.Veitch, 175-192. Oxford, Portland: Hart Publishing, 2001.
7. Schaap A. Political Reconciliation. London, New York: Routledge, 2005.
8. The Golden Rule. The Ethics of Reciprocity in World Religious, edited by J.Neusner and B.Chilton. – London, New York: Continuum, 2008.
9. Tutu D. No Future without Forgiveness: A personal overview of South Africa’s truth and reconciliation commission. London: Rider Books, 1999.
10. Young I.M. "Asymmetrical Reciprocity On Moral Respect Wonder and Enlarged Thought". In Judgment, Imagination, and Politics: Themes from Kant and Arendt, edited by R.Beiner and J.Nedelsky, 205-229. Rowman &Littlefield, 2001.
Corresponding author: Denis Kiryukhin
Copyright © 2017 Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv University Publishing